"Boy, you two gave me a fright!" Stampy told the two of them in a stage whisper as he clambered back to his feet with a little shiver. "What are you doing down here?!"
"Uh, I think that we should be asking you that," Jace said, looking over at Stampy as a slightly accusing tone crept into his voice.
Stampy blinked at him a bit, taken aback by the comment. "Well that was needlessly confrontational."
Onscreen, the spider hybrid blinked. "Well- you did see us go through the doors to go have a look at the 'secret lair', so... yeah. That's what we're doing," she told him Stampy, tilting her head slightly as she regarded him cautiously. "So... what are you doing down here?"
Stampy bounced a bit, anxiously, wringing his hands in a furor of anxiety. He sidled past the two girls, careful to avoid impaling himself on the swords that they were holding out in his direction. "I needed to find you, because I have something important to tell you!"
Dan blinked a bit at that. "Oh?"
Real-Stampy bit his lip suddenly, realizing exactly what his onscreen-self was talking about.
Oh boy.
Onscreen, Petra looked at Jesse automatically, as if trying to tell her that she was going to follow the shorter girl's lead. Jesse glanced at Petra unsurely, before slowly sheathing her sword again. Following suit, Petra also sheathed her sword, although her hands were still open in a defensive way.
"I have something to confess," Stampy blurted in a flood of words, rubbing his arm uncomfortably as he looked down at the dirt floor. "Something I haven't told anyone."
Petra frowned a bit at the orange-hoodie-wearing boy. "Where is this going?" she asked him, slowly.
Several members of the audience glanced at Stampy automatically, but he was biting his nails in an agony of anxiety and not paying any attention to them. Therefore he missed most of said looks.
Onscreen, Stampy hesitated for a moment, before reaching into his back pocket...
And pulling out a green, glowing flint and steel.
"Whoa- what?! I- what- Stampy?!" Dan spluttered, looking both angry and shocked at the same time, though right now he was looking more shocked than angry. "You had the flint and steel this whole time?!"
Real-Stampy bit his lip again, agonizing over it, before reaching into his own back pocket and timidly pulling out a matching set of flint and steel.
"You did take it!" Lizzie exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. Sparklez just looked rather surprised at this turn of events.
"Nnnnn, I'm so sorry!" Real-Stampy exploded, sweat trickling down the back of his neck as he shrank down in his seat even more and more, his heart thumping away rapidly. "It was just supposed to be a prank, a harmless practical joke, and I am so sorry, so very, very sorry!"
"Hey, yeah, guys, calm down," Stacy said quickly, reaching over and giving a now-trembling Stampy a pat on the back, "it's Stampy. He really wouldn't try to hurt anyone."
"Well, yeah, but he stole it-" Dan began to argue back.
"It was just a joke! I stole it two days ago, and then I was just going to put it back to startle you, but I guess we got invited before I had a chance to put it away, and I am so very, very sorry!" Stampy looked as if he might start crying.
Dan's glare faded, and he sighed and wrapped an arm around Stampy's shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, okay, it's fine," he grumbled, but he'd definitely relaxed a bit now.
Onscreen, Jesse's mouth fell open into a perfect, stunned 'o' as Stampy babbled, shuffling his feet nervously in an agony of anxiety, "Nnnn I stole it from Dan, and it was just supposed to be a joke, a harmless prank, but then- well- you saw what happened! I knew people wanted it, but, but I had no idea that, that, that this would happen!"
"We believe you, Stampy, shhhh," Dan said, patting Real-Stampy on the back. Stampy peeped meekly up at Dan. When he saw that Dan didn't actually look that angry, he abruptly threw his arms around the taller boy, making Dan squeak a bit as Stampy accidentally squeezed some breath out of the poor guy.
Jesse blinked a few times, her mouth shutting again. "Well... I did not see that coming," she said at last. "I did not see that coming."
Petra frowned at Stampy, her gold eyes sparking a bit as she narrowed them at him. "You have to admit, Stampy, this seems pretty suspicious," she told him at last.
"I know! And that's why I had to keep it a secret!" Stampy exclaimed, hands tightening on the flint and steel, "I may be a thief, but I'm no killer! But that White Pumpkin is! And he's killing people for it, and now we're all down in his lair!" He paused, lips twisting as he shuffled his feet back and forth, rather guiltily, before glancing at the White Pumpkin's mask on a nearby armor stand. "I was thinking... maybe I should just... give it to the White Pumpkin."
"What?" Petra deadpanned.
"Yeah, uh, that's a terrible idea, sport," Hadrian deadpanned. Otto scowled at him, but, well, it was an accurate statement.
"But- but maybe all the killings would stop?" Stampy whispered weakly.
"I don't know... I can hardly imagine that the White Pumpkin would just go 'Oh, thanks. Have fun with the rest of your lives' and then go skipping off merrily into the sunset," Jesse muttered, sarcastically.
Half of the audience choked a bit at that mental image that proceeded to pop up.
"Well- maybe, maybe if I gave it to the White Pumpkin... all of these killings would stop," Stampy mumbled, shrinking a bit under Petra's intense stare.
Onscreen, Jesse considered this, before folding her hands together neatly. "Well... who do you think Dan would want to give it to?" she asked, calmly.
"How are you staying so calm right now?!" Petra whispered, hands twitching and sending a spray of sparks flitting outwards.
Jesse simply shook her head a couple of times, still with that serene look on her face. "I have no idea," she replied, in the same even voice as before.
Stampy thought about that for a moment. "Well- well, I suppose-" He hesitated, "he'd want it back. It IS his, after all, he got it fair and square..."
Jesse shrugged at that and clapped her hands together neatly. "Well, then that's settled," she told him, cheerfully enough.
"Well- yeah, I guess," and Stampy's shoulders relaxed as he slipped the flint and steel back into his pocket. "Er, thanks, Jesse."
"Ahh, our Jesse. Ever the diplomat," Ivor teased the black-haired girl.
Jesse pinked a bit at the compliment (well, she assumed it was a compliment, anyway), giving him a slight smile. "Well, it's not really being a diplomat... I just talk to people."
Remember how Lukas said that Jesse would deny that she was good at breathing if someone told her she was proficient at it?
Yeah, that still applies.
Turning around, Jesse regarded the iron doors with a lever on the wall right next to it. Petra put one hand on her hip before leveling the other one at the door in a dramatic pointing motion. "That looks like a 'lair door' if I ever saw one," she said, firmly.
"You would be a fantastic actress," Jace grinned.
Petra smacked him.
Onscreen, the spider hybrid's upper arms reached up at the same time as her middle arm shot out and flipped the switch downwards, flicking the sword back out of its sheathe defensively. You know, just in case.
"Before we go in there," Stampy said softly, Petra continuing past Jesse as the spider hybrid paused and turned back to look over her shoulder, "I- wanted to thank you."
The spider hybrid blinked a bit, before twisting to look over at Stampy altogether. "What for?" she asked him, curiously.
"Well- for saving me and Dan. You don't know us, you- you didn't have to, but you did, so-" Stampy took a deep breath, cutting himself off before he could begin rambling. "Thank you."
"Oh yeah. We never got around to that, did we?" Dan twisted to look at Real-Jesse, who simply blinked at him in confusion. "Thanks for saving us, Jesse. I know that we were both technically... 'suspects', and we weren't exactly making life easy for you..."
"It's fine," Jesse said mildly, eyes crinkling up cheerfully. "I would've done the same for anybody. Everyone deserves to be saved."
Just for a second, her eyes flickered to Aiden.
Onscreen, Jesse's expression had softened. "No problem," she told him, and the two of them ventured after Petra... into a huge cavern. Light poured in through a hole in the ceiling, providing light that wasn't just from the lamps on the walls. Bookshelves lined the rough walls, as well as a few paintings and papers. On Jesse's left side, near a miniature lake, were a couple of chests. If you glanced in the other direction, there were more chests and a brewing station...
And cats.
Like, literally, there were just four or five calico cats lounging around on some rough stone 'shelves', and one resting on a chest.
Real-Jesse blinked at that. "... are those cats?" she asked, at last, sounding rather confused.
"Uh... I guess the White Pumpkin is a cat person?" Axel said slowly, sounding a bit weirded out.
Cassie's heart was thumping away, faster and faster now. Her mouth had suddenly gone quite dry, and it took a small flash of pain in her arm from Winslow swiping at it to realize that she'd started squeezing him like a stress ball.
"I guess..."
"Oh... wow," Onscreen-Jesse said, blinking.
Petra looked around the lair, before looking over at the much-shorter Jesse and arching her eyebrow. "Very... creepy."
"I would not put this in my 'top ten places I've ever been'," Stampy added.
Real-Jesse got a small fit of the giggles.
Onscreen, Petra put her hands on her hips and looked at the cats with a rather deadpan look. "Well... there's where the meowing's coming from," she said at last, arching her eyebrow.
"We can get out of here as soon as we find something that proves the White Pumpkin's identity," Jesse said quickly, having a look around the lair with a look that basically read that she agreed with Petra about the 'creepiness' of the lair wholeheartedly. Quickly, just to have something to do, she went over to the painting to have a look- and then her eyes widened, the spider hybrid stepping back a bit.
Because in the painting was a beautifully rendered image of the portal hallway.
"Oh, wow." Olivia blinked at the painting. "I... guess the White Pumpkin's not from this world, either."
Cassie's brow darkened a bit at the innocent comment.
"Uh, Petra... did you see this-?"
"That's the portal hallway!" Petra blurted, eyes widening as she drew level with Jesse.
"Yeah- looks like the White Pumpkin's been there, too..." Jesse mumbled, stepping back a bit more and then moving away, Petra also following suit a few seconds later.
Jesse passed by two chests that seemed to read 'CHESTS OF THE DEAD' (although she shuddered a bit at the sight of it) and was swinging a right at the pool of water-
There was a sudden sound, and Jesse spun around and shot out with her hand, a web shooting out before retracting rapidly to reveal... a flopping fish.
"A bit paranoid, aren't we?" Mevia mumbled.
Lukas scowled at her, twisting around on the spot to send a glare at the pale-blue haired woman. "They're in the secret lair of a murderer. I'd like to see you not acting a bit paranoid about the whole thing."
"... nice hearing."
Jesse looked at the fish flopping around in her hand, before shrugging and sticking it in her pocket and then moving back along the wall from earlier to the huge, almost artistically-built tower of books in the corner of the room. She leaned forward and poked through the books a bit. Her brow furrowed the more she poked through. "... uh, wow, they're all about portals. Pretty obsessive..." She poked through the shelves some more, before pausing. "Oh- 'Walking with the Enderman' by- Soren?!" she straightened up, looking a bit put out. "How the heck did the White Pumpkin get that?"
Several people looked at Soren.
He just shrugged a bit.
Onscreen, the spider hybrid walked over to a chest on the opposite end of the room with a calico cat stretched out on it lazily, snoozing away. Jesse frowned at the chest thoughtfully. "I bet this is important..." she murmured thoughtfully.
She proceeded to poke the calico cat gently. "Um, hello, kitty. Hey, kitty kitty. Could you scoot out of the way please?" she asked, softly.
The cat ignored her.
"... wow, wish Lukas was here," she muttered, running a hand through her hair.
"Yeah, he would've loved to chat with all these cats. Not to mention that little lake filled with lots of very edible fish," the narrator spoke up, making Jesse glance up at the ceiling.
"... maybe I'll catch one for him."
"Oh- hey, sweet!" Petra exclaimed, making Jesse blink before turning around to see Petra holding up a huge handful of Ender Pearls- about ten, perhaps. "Ender Pearls!"
Jesse put all of her hands up, turning to face Petra. "Toss me a couple?" she called.
"Wait, you're not- you're not about to actually-?" Cassie began, sounding slightly taken aback.
The Blaze hybrid threw an entire handful of them at Jesse, all five of them spinning through the air in a lazy arc in Jesse's direction. Jesse's hands all moved, snatching them all expertly out of the air without a single one popping.
"... okay that was pretty impressive," Em mumbled under her breath.
"Ooh, nice!" Stampy exclaimed.
Jesse bowed, her five Ender Pearl-laden hands stowing them away into her pockets. "Thank you, thank you," she joked, making the three of them all chortle a bit in amusement.
The spider hybrid turned back to the chest, regarding it with a thoughtful look, before reaching into her back pocket and pulling out the fish she'd inadvertently caught earlier. "Here, kitty kitty," she coaxed, the cat's head rising off of the chest.
"Progress!" the narrator called out.
Several people in the audience started giggling at that.
"Here, kitty," Jesse said in a low coo, setting the fish down and backing away a few steps. "Get the fishy."
The cat finally slinked off of the chest towards the fish, making Jesse smile a bit. "There you go," she called, coaxingly.
Suddenly, a loud chorus of meowing began. The spider hybrid looked up, mouth dropping open to see that instead of the three or four calico cats that had been perched up there earlier, about TWELVE.
They all began to jump down, stampeding towards the fish. (In a really cute, adorably cat-oriented way...) "Ah! Cats!" Jesse exclaimed, practically launching herself backwards to avoid accidentally stepping on any of them in the flood that had just poured onto the floor, "so many cats!"
"That is, uh..." Stacy blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened. "That is a lot of cats."
Petra frowned at the flood of cats competing for the fish. "Ugh. Besides Lukas, cats give me the creeps." There was a short pause, before she glanced at Stampy. "Uh, no offense, Stampy."
"None taken." Stampy cupped a hand around his mouth, dropping his mouth to a whisper: "I'm not really a cat."
Jesse was looking at Petra when her eyes widened again, the screen zooming in on her eye.
"Ooh another flashback!" Ivor exclaimed, leaning forward rapidly and nearly making Harper slip and fall on him.
Onscreen, the screen zoomed back out to show the tiny spider hybrid perched on a seat, humming away as she fiddled with her strings in a little game reminiscent of 'Cat's Cradle'. Lukas practically had his head in her lap, batting at the strings lazily, while Axel was leaning on Olivia, snoozing a little bit. (Several audience members couldn't help but smile at that.) Petra was shooting little glowing embers across the room into a metal bucket, more often than not burning a small mark on the white wall.
Suddenly, the door opened, and fear shot across all of their faces as they automatically turned to look at the door.
Their faces lit up with excitement as the Order filed in, and they all ran to greet their respective Order member with a tight hug or a happy greeting. Jesse had just thrown her arms around Ivor when she jerked back with a yelp. "You have something in your armor!" she squeaked.
Ivor looked down to see that there was indeed a lump moving around under his coat, and he let out a long, irritated sigh. "Good lord did the cat really tag along?" Reaching inside, he pulled out the tiniest, fluffiest ball of- well- pale yellow fluff from under his coat, complete with giant hazel eyes and tiny paws and a little fluffy tail.
"Okay- that's adorable," Milo said, leaning back and nodding decisively.
"Awwww, you brought a cat, Ivor," Jesse teased kindly.
"Hush, child," he muttered, feeling his cheeks flush a rather deep red color.
The cat suddenly seemed to glitch, replaced by a familiar-looking, calico kitten.
Everyone glanced at Winslow, who was grooming himself using his tongue. When he noticed everyone was looking at him, he just smiled beatifically- if cats could indeed smile beatifically.
Jesse's excited look had faded to one of slight confusion as the other hybrids practically ran over to see the cat... except for Petra, who was just staring at it blankly.
"Petra? Are you okay?" Jesse asked, innocently, as she fondled the kitten's ears slightly. "Don't you want to come see the kitty?"
Petra frowned and shook her head. "I don't like it," she said bluntly.
The cat meowed.
Petra looked at it before moving to sit behind Lukas.
The screen zoomed out again, Jesse blinking several times in surprise at the memory that had just come out.
"I guess Petra wasn't kidding... in that dimension I guess she doesn't like cats," Aiden mumbled, scratching his cheek.
Real-Petra shrugged, looking slightly bewildered. (Jace knew for a fact that here, she liked cats quite a bit.) "Guess not."
Onscreen, Jesse shook it off and moved towards the chest, pushing it open and rummaging around inside. "It's full of... oh, wow." Jesse straightened up, holding a large banner-type object in her hands, before reaching up and popping it into place on the wall. And there was Petra, on the wall.
With a big, red, slightly-dripping X drawn through her.
A/N: My roommate bought takeout and didn't offer me any... now I'm hungry and I can't get to sleep.
RQTC: If I publish Phantasmagoria, would you guys read it? (sorry, out of questions and I'm way too tired right now.)
LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) / (cackles) Mwahaha, you have fallen into my trap xD / Yep~
RapidSammi: x3 / (laughs)
LittleAngelbun: (laughs) / Indeed; I have plans~ / I'm nearly at the exact halfway point now. xD
Toni42: YEP x3 / (laughs) I dunno, she just put it there as a sort of prank. / (laughs) / Welllll~ xD / (grins) / Huehuehue x3
InsaneAcrobat: (laughs) So do I, fam. / Nope :3 / ... I don't get what you just said... / Yes, I think so.
the indecisive bird: Hahaha xD / I have that bug too; I can only hear footsteps. / (cackles) No one's actually commented on that yet.
KaosRuin: (laughs) Did it really?
RavenBlaze4850: (cracks up) / Uh, we won't xD / (laughs) I did mention not being able to get it until August 5, didn't I? / Nearly halfway through, actually.
J.M.M.: ? What are you sorry about?
Emily The Avenger: I'm glad! (lAUGHS)
RWBYSTRQ: Oh. No. That was an extra.
PoptartCrumbs: THANK YOU! / Haha xD He finally got revenge~
giriri: (laughs) Yep. / (chuckles) Indeed.
DarkPrincess2001: ... eh.
Infernius Flashfire: (laughs) / (shrugs) / (cracks up) Uh, Idk.
Darkbeast Dend: Go read the notice I put up on the sequel.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (laughs) / I'm glad you liked both!
x.X. A.L. X.x
